Xolo:

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Feedly - I've Reached the End of the Internet

I've Reached the End of the Internet

So what do I do now?

All done... I've reached the end of the Internet

Every now and then you will finish reading all of your Feedly articles. Once you have a grasp on the basics (see my previous blog: How to Use Feedly), you can start leveraging some cool and free features.

47 Subscriptions is usually PLENTY of reading.

Look Closer

Once all of your Feedly articles are marked "Read", Feedly will display a very interesting table. You might say to yourself - "well, I've already skimmed all of these articles and I've read many of them". Feedly even provides a "Recently Read" menu option on the left side navigation if you need to re-read a post. So, what's so cool about this view?

Click for larger image.If you click, you will be able to spy on my reading list.

Feedly (Meta Data) to the Rescue

Once all of your articles are marked Read, click on the All Items link. Feedly will generate a list of your articles. The columns are very simple to understand.

If you Flagged (Saved for Later) an article, the indicator will be highlighted

The name of the Blog

How many times the Blog has been "Liked" (which is not the same as being "Shared"), and if the article is more popular than usual, it will also be highlighted (mouse-over the field to see the popularity score)

The title of the post

The time / date when the blog was posted

What to Look For

Did you mark any items for review? Why not? If you are reading, or even skimming, dozens of articles and none are catching your fancy for later, maybe you should review the blogs you are tracking for content alignment. Are other people "Liking" the post? What is the topic? What makes the article popular? Are you blogging about similar content? Does the post have zero (0) likes... over a long period of time? Why are you reading this content? I follow the Mercatus Site Feed which has a focus on Economics, Politics and Think Tanks. This site is not as popular as ARS Technica or Crunchgear - which focus on Technology. Mercatus has a very specific niche that I like to read. So, they stay on my list. If all I read was the popular sites, I would end up reading about Kim's daily exploits and the Hollywood tart of the day.

Culling the List

Are some of your blogs posting too much? I was following a couple of sites that were posting 50, 60, even 70 articles per day! Content was scattered across a bunch of categories, and much was of it was just not interesting to me. So, yes, I broke up with them.Are some of your sites posting too little? Over the Holidays I culled my Twitter list by removing Inactive users. I started at 60 days, then cut down to 30 days. Face it, if you are not posting on Twitter more than once or twice a month... get a blog.

To Check Feedly for Blog Post Frequency

Click on the Blog title in the left column. Feedly will display important information about the blog - number of readers, etc. And, it will sow the last several posts. "The Austrian School of Investment" posts about every two weeks. But, with a reader audience of four (4, me and three others), they need to keep the content coming at very regular intervals.

You Have Special Interests, Follow Them!

Your favorite content can die from neglect. Just like your favorite restaurant. Follow blogs that give you good content, cut down on the blogs that do not. You know, reward good behavior by reading their content, posting it on Twitter, and citing it in your blog.

Bottom Line

Xolotech is a blog about Technology Hacks to Make like Simple ("so low tech", get it?). Tools like Feedly fit right into the sweet spot for this blog. Feedly also provides content for my personal interest blog at Macrotots.com -- politics, economics, and STEM. Feedly captures blog content, present the content is a simple layout, and allows me to consume a torrent of data at my leisure. Why not leverage all of the feature set? ~Xolo